mobiWhat happened to Flappy Bird?
In January 2014 a free game about a small bird and some green pipes was the most downloaded app on the App Store. A few weeks later its creator deleted it. Here is the whole story: who made Flappy Bird, why it took off, why it was removed, and what happened after.
The short answer
Flappy Bird was never banned. Its creator, Dong Nguyen, took it down himself on February 10, 2014, while it was the most popular free game on the App Store. He said it had become too addictive, and that he could not take the attention any more. Guinness World Records lists it as the first app to be withdrawn after topping the Apple App Store chart.
Who made Flappy Bird
Flappy Bird was made by Dong Nguyen (Nguyá» n HĂ ÄĂŽng), a developer from Vietnam who grew up in VáșĄn PhĂșc, a village near Hanoi. He released it under his own one-person studio, .Gears.
He built it in two or three days. Its working title was Flap Flap, and the bird, called Faby, had been drawn in 2012 for a platform game he never finished. The idea was as simple as a game can be: tap to flap, gravity pulls you down, and touching a pipe or the ground ends the run.
When it came out, and how it blew up
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| May 24, 2013 | Released on iPhone. Almost nobody noticed for months. |
| January 2014 | Top of the free apps chart in the US and China, then the UK, and the most downloaded App Store app of the month. |
| January 30, 2014 | Released on Android. |
| February 8, 2014 | Nguyen tweets that he will take the game down in 22 hours. |
| February 10, 2014 | Removed from the App Store and Google Play. |
Nobody is quite sure why a game that had sat quietly for eight months suddenly took off. Nguyen said he did no promotion and put it down to luck. The usual explanation is that it fed itself: the game was so hard that people shared their scores and their frustration, and everyone who heard about it wanted to see how badly they would do.
The game was free. It made money from the banner ads shown while you played, and at its peak Nguyen told The Verge it was earning about $50,000 a day.
Why Flappy Bird was removed
On February 8, 2014, Nguyen posted on Twitter:
âI am sorry Flappy Bird users, 22 hours from now, I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore.â
Two days later it was gone. In an interview with Forbes he explained that the game had âhappened to become an addictive productâ, and that he felt guilty about it to the point of losing sleep. He also said the removal had ânothing to do with legal issuesâ.
That last part mattered, because rumours were everywhere. The green pipes looked a lot like the ones in Super Mario Bros., and some people guessed Nintendo had forced the game off the stores. Nintendo told The Wall Street Journal that it hadnât. The simpler story, the one Nguyen told, is that a quiet developer suddenly had millions of players and the whole worldâs attention, and he did not want either.
What happened after
- Phones went on eBay. Phones with Flappy Bird still installed were listed for $1,499 and up, with some bids above $90,000, until eBay removed the listings.
- The clones arrived.At the peak, more than 60 Flappy Bird copies a day were landing on the App Store, and Apple and Google started rejecting games with âFlappyâ in the name.
- Nguyen kept making games. In 2014 he released Swing Copters, built on the same one-tap idea, and Flappy Birds Family, a version for Amazon Fire TV with new obstacles and a multiplayer mode.
- A new Flappy Bird appeared in 2024.Nguyenâs trademark was cancelled and passed to another company, which announced a new game under the name in September 2024. Nguyen said he had no connection to it and had sold no rights.
Medals and high scores
The original game gave out a medal on the game over screen: bronze at 10 points, silver at 20, gold at 30 and platinum at 40. Each pipe you passed was one point.
There is no official Flappy Bird world record, because the game kept no global leaderboard, and a score on a phone screen is easy to fake, so no claimed high score can be checked.
Flappy Birdie does keep score. Medals land at 10, 25 and 40 pipes, the gaps tighten as you go, and every run goes on a daily leaderboard, so you can see exactly where you stand.
Where to play it now
You canât download the original Flappy Bird any more. Flappy Birdie is our own take on the same tap-to-flap idea, free in your browser with nothing to install. It runs on a phone, a laptop or a school Chromebook, and you can send a friend a challenge link so you both fly the exact same pipes.
Flappy Birdie is an independent game made by free2mobi. It is not affiliated with Dong Nguyen, .Gears or the current owners of the Flappy Bird name.
Flappy Bird questions
Why was Flappy Bird banned?
It wasn't banned. Its creator, Dong Nguyen, removed it himself on February 10, 2014. He said the game had become too addictive and that the attention was more than he could take, and that the decision had nothing to do with legal issues.
When did Flappy Bird come out?
Flappy Bird came out on iPhone on May 24, 2013, and on Android on January 30, 2014. It sat unnoticed for months, then shot to the top of the App Store charts in January 2014.
Who created Flappy Bird?
Dong Nguyen, a developer from Vietnam who grew up near Hanoi. He released it under his own small studio, .Gears, and made the game in two or three days.
How much money did Flappy Bird make?
At its peak, Nguyen told The Verge the game was earning about $50,000 a day from the ads shown in it. The game itself was free.
Can you still play Flappy Bird?
The original has not been back in the app stores since 2014. A new Flappy Bird released in 2024 came from a different company, and Nguyen said he had nothing to do with it. You can play the same tap-to-flap style of game free in your browser with Flappy Birdie.